We have managed to tick off quite a number of items on the grand to-do list recently, which is encouraging. Most are related to getting ready for winter in one way or another.
That process started with the canning and preserving of a whole range of late summer produce, from cranberries to sauerkraut joining the array of tomatoes, pickled cukes and chutney. We bought half a cow and that went in the freezer with our table birds. We should have half a pig coming this week to round out our meat store. More of the pig when it happens!
The garden and greenhouse are just about cleared and prepared for winter, the strawberries and asparagus are pruned and mulched. We have some experimental greenery in the tunnel, it'll be interesting to see how it gets on, though with Jane's accident, we didn't really catch up on winter planting, so the experiment will have to wait for another year properly. The one and only apple tree still needs to be pruned, but presumably there isn't any rush to do that now. We still have plans to put in a bit of an orchard next spring. We really wanted to have a new propagation / transplant greenhouse up before next spring - maybe we've missed our chance now, but we might get to it yet.
Last winter's manure was tractored to join this year's cut grass in a large windrow compost heap, and we divided the stable into 2 separate loose boxes for the horses - hopefully they'll be easier to manage singly. I made a start brushcutting the rushes and weedy grass in the lower field, where I didn't mow this year - it's wet and boggy down there at the moment, and I thought I would end up with the tractor stuck, but the longer it lies uncut, the worse the tangle will become. I was hoping to cut it all by hand, so the new growth in the spring would be palatable for grazing. We still need drainage though.
When Neal was here, he managed to stack most of this year's firewood, and I have added to that and made an outdoor stack, covered, which may even do us for next year too. For the first time ever, we are actually ahead of ourselves in firewood. I even felled a couple of small trees to make up the cordage.
In the house, we got the insulation done - we have blown cellulose, recycled newsprint into the attic and coombe spaces, which will hopefully make it a little more bearable upstairs for the kids bedrooms. The upstairs bathroom renovation is coming along, albeit painfully slowly. I have stripped the 'den' behind the bathroom. We did the pre-winter chimney sweep, put away the trampoline and the volleyball net and gathered bags of birchbark and kindling for fire lighting.
After a mixed spell of weather, the temperature has announced winter with a vengeance. There are snow flurries today and it has been below freezing all day. We brought the horses in tonight for the first time, and shifted the new chickens into their winter quarters. The latter process involved a cardboard box and a pokey stick - good grief, are we professionals at this?!
So, are we ready for winter? No, it doesn't feel so, but we have managed to do a bunch of pre-winter tasks and that feels fairly good!
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